Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Campong Cham,,Amica Eco village in Morning

I awake after a restless night of high temperature and coughing, to the knowledge that I have bronchitis! it is not the flu, it can't be, I had the flu vaccination, though I am sure it was for common varieties of Flu in New Zealand not some obscure variety from Mekong Cambodia. I am not going to allow it to stop me seeing everything I can of this country because I know I shall never be back. I am not a pill taker, but I find a couple of very old Paracetamol tablets in my toilet bag, chop them into quarters and I shall have a quarter every 4 hours, when you never take any at all the small amount works just fine and this had the desired effect.So at 9 am I am ready to depart in the bus, Erle however is not he says he needs to hover much closer to where a toilet is.The day is beautiful not too hot but nice and sunny at present but it will get much hotter as the day goes on, lovely to be walking in the fresh air.We are visiting Amica and Eco Village where half the villagers are under 15 years of age, most all the people are rice farmers. This is area does not have a very high rainfall so the farmers can only grow one crop a year here, whilst in some parts of the country up to 3 crops a year can be grown.I did see the village dam which is quite full at this time since it is the wet season, everywhere is nice and green.Not a wealthy village, they are getting help from a French organization to start eco tourism; ie us, I guess! They are also trying to make and sell handicrafts, some did sell today. The guide tells us that the people don't really get enough to eat and are generally shorter and lighter than most Cambodians because of this, children do not get milk to drink, though quite why I couldn't figure, coming from a great dairy farming country and seeing cattle beasts everywhere I would have though milk for the children would be an easy matter, but not the case apparently.Children today are treated to lots of sweets that we all seem to have a pocketful.

Most houses are built on stilts and are quite new and well looked after, there are neat hay stacks of rice stalks put aside for the off season for the cattle beasts

I find cattle and water buffalo under buildings resting today, and am surprised how closely they live with their owners, one man sat and cuddled his buffalo, right beside his wife busy preparing dinner, while we talked, but he would not allow us to touch it in case it reacted fiercely. Other families had breeding pigs. Many people were busy out in the rice paddy, planting rice bent double all day with their bare feet in the wet sloppy mud, a very hard job I wouldn't enjoy.I saw crabs in the mud, another source of food for the people.Other people were being transported around the village on the tuk tuk type transport.

I saw large crabs in the mud, another source of food for the people.A group of ladies do their washing at the village pump.Pleasant mornings visit, now back to ship for lunch, more activities this afternoon.